Staple.



c. L. COLUMBIA.

STAPLE.

APPLICATION FILED OCT- 27'. I909.

Patented 0ct.17,1 916.

'CHARLES LAFAYETTE COLUMBIA, 0]? ORANGE, CALIIEORNIA.'

STAPLE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 17, 1916.

Application filed October 27, 1909. Serial No. 524,964.

To all whom z't may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES LAFAYETTE COLUMBIA, a citizen of the United States, residing at Orange, in the county of. Orange and State of California, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Staples, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to provide a staple or double-pointed nail or tack of the character used for securing barbed wire and wire netting to fence posts or other wooden supports, screen wire to frames, and

carpets and matting to floors, and for other analogous uses, and which staple, nail or tack will be held by a maximum amount of friction and may be driven with minimum injury to the grain of the wood, thus to improve the fastening and to avoid shortening the life of the post or other wooden body into which the staple is driven.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention.

Figure 1 is a side view of a staple, doublepointed tack or nail embodying this inven tion. Fig. 2 is a view of the inner faces of the loop and two legs of said staple sectioned on line indicated by 413 -83 Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a view of the opposite outer faces of the legs of said staple the loop and legs of which are separated on line w a2 Fig. 1..

Fig. 4 is a view of the same staple when drlven into a plece of wood, sald wood be- "ing split approximately at the mid-plane of said staple. Figs. 5, 6 and 7 are cross sections of the legs of the staple on lines 00 0a, and a, respectively.

The staples may be made of various sizes and dimensions for the various uses for which they may be designed.

The staple comprises the loop-like head 1 which is of common form and two legs '2, 3, the opposite outer faces a, b, of which legs normally extend in parallel directions and are preferably of unequal length, the inner of said faces are curved or deflected toward the tips of the legs so as to facilitate bending the staple at the loop as the legs are driven home.

The staples may be bent from wire of any desired cross sectlonal form; preferably they are bent from cylindrical wire. The

legs may be pointed either before or after the staples are bent. The beveled faces of the points may be produced in a manner more orless satisfactory by shearing the wire appropriatelyrbefore or after bending or they may be partly produced by shearing the wire and afterward shaping by grinding, forging or presslng or in any other suitable manner.

When the staple 1s drlven into a wooden body the sharp points of the tips at and the sharp edges 5 between the rounded and the flattened faces of the legs serve to sever the wood sharply and the rounded outerfaces a, b, tend to compress the wood on the outside in radial directions while the flattened inner faces of the legs are spread apart by the substance between them so that when the staple is driven as shown in Fig. l the legs will invariably be spread apart so that it is necessary to draw them together again in order to pull the staple from any wood that is sufficiently strong to resist the strain. Each of the legs is preferably provided on its rounded surface with balbs or notches 6 after the manner in common use, to cause the legs of the nails or staples to be held more tightly by the substance into which they are driven. By reason of the curved portiomthe outward slant of the legs is substantially increased near the tips, so that the tips will have sufficient metal to allow them to be driven into the wood without bending. From the foregoing .it may be seen that a self-clenching staple for wood or similar substances has been produced, the essence of the invention comprising a staple shaped at the tlps in accordance with tlllS disclosure, the legs having convex outer faces, and m- .ner faces, having convex portions Whose convexity is in the opposite direction to that of the outer faces and adapting the legs to penetrate wood or similar substances in op.- positely curved paths corresponding to the convexity of the inner faces.

I claim 1. A staple, the legs of which are round with flat inner faces on their adjacent sides, the planes of said facgs being normal to the plane in which the legs extend and slanting outwardly from the loop toward the tips of the staple, the outward slant of the legs being substantiallyincreased near said tips.

2. A staple having a-loop and two le s,

said legs having inner faces the transver e traces of which are straight, and the longitudinal traces of which are curved for a distance from the points of the legs and are straight throughout a greater length and starid aslant from the tip of the outer faces of the legs to the inner face of the loop or head of the staple.

3. A staple the legs of which are each flattened on the inner face and rounded on the other, the flattened faces extending throughout the greater portion of said legs and being oblique to the axis of the staple; the transverse traces of said faces being straight, the longitudinal traces being curved at the tips and straight throughout the greater length between the tips and the loop of the staple.

4:. A staple having a loop and two legs, said legs having substantially rounded outer faces relatively parallel throughout their length, and flattened inner faces lying in angularly disposed planes that are normal to the plane in which the legs extend, the

,angle increasing near the tips of the legs.

5. A staple having a loop and two legs, the outer surfaces of the loop and legs being a continuous convex cylindrical face, and

the inner faces of the legs lying in trans- CHARLES LAFAYETTE COLUMBIA.

In presence of A. H. SMALL, H. S. HUFF. 

